Qal'ai Khumb

Qal'ai Khumb stands where a tributary meets the Panj in the steep mountain country of Darvaz. It became the capital of a principality whose rulers held territory on both banks of the upper Oxus. The surrounding ridges and narrow river valleys made Darvaz difficult to control from outside, while connecting its rulers with neighbouring Badakhshan and the Pamirs.

In 1637–38 an Uzbek force took the fortress of Qal'ai Khumb and killed the ruler Shah Gharib. His brother Shah Qirghiz was installed in his place. By the middle of the seventeenth century Uzbek power had been expelled and a line of rulers styling themselves shahs of Darvaz governed independently. They fought the rulers of Badakhshan over Ragh and claimed authority farther east in Shughnan. Their followers received shares of land revenues and the proceeds of successful raids.